Early Samsung Galaxy S III pre-order, iPhone 4S inadequacy

The elusive Samsung Galaxy S III remains a mystery officially, but unofficially we are continuing to hear of numerous whispers of its existance. Out of nowhere, Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone has become available online for pre-order.

Obviously it is not the first time that we’ve seen an early pre-order for an unannounced handset, but when it involves the Samsung Galaxy S III we tend to take notice – especially since the device is rumored to be packing genuine next-generation hardware specs, at last.

The retailer in question is MobileCityOnline, as their listing for the device is still live now despite being available for a couple of days now. There is no way of determining whether their information is accurate, but there is some very juicy details to pick out from their pre-order page nevertheless. Let the disection begin.

Firstly, they have identified the Galaxy S III by the model name GT-i9300 which may be worth noting down for future reference. Next, they have made no secret of the fact that they intend to sell the device for no less than $799, which may seem very expensive to you off contract, but wait until you see the apparent specs on offer.

In accordance with previous spec leaks that we have already heard for the device, the page reveals that the Galaxy S III will be packing a mindblowing 1.8Ghz quad-core Exynos processor, a monster 2GB of RAM which is a first for any modern smartphone and last but certainly not least, a whopping 12 megapixel camera coupled with a 2MP front-facing camera. We’re not sure about you, but that is some beastly specs right there, and if Samsung actually deliver with this officially, then we’re looking at the most impressive smartphone on the market period.

Now let’s look back at that $799 price – does it seem reasonable to you now or not? If you think that Apple are currently selling an unlocked iPhone 4S with 32GB of storage for $749.99 on the Apple store – that $800 asking price for a next-generation smartphone without a contract doesn’t seem too bad to us. Obviously there is no word on what Apple will be bringing to the table this year by way of the iPhone 5, but Apple fan or not you have to presume that Apple will put a quad-core chip inside the next iPhone or they may run the risk of being overlooked by superphones such as the Galaxy S III.

This is all presuming these specs are real of course, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This pre-order page does seem a bit mysterious though – what do you make of it? Tell us, would you be willing to pay $800 for a 1.8Ghz quad-core smartphone with 2GB of RAM and a 12 megapixel HD camera?

Potential stumbling block: Hold on just a minute though, as we’ve noticed that the same pre-order page doesn’t go into quite as much detail when discussing the battery capacity on the device. They have just listed ‘standard battery’ which is quite worrying, as this device is going to need a battery on the same wavelength as the Droid RAZR Maxx, which features a 3,300 mAh battery. All that lovely new hardware with a bog standard battery is the only thing that could ruin Samsung’s dreams of toppling Apple’s smartphone dominance at the moment, so get the battery right first and foremost and they could be on to a winner here.